Since the earliest days of cinema, athletes have leveraged their celebrity for starring roles in studio films. Take figure skater Sonja Henie, who parlayed her gold medals into highest-paid-Hollywood-actress status, essentially playing herself in movies like 20th Century Fox’s 1938 musical comedy My Lucky Star.
Today it’s basketball stars: Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are all making major Hollywood plays. WME alone reps more than a dozen current and former players, including James, O’Neal, recent Oscar winner Kobe Bryant, Uncle Drew’s Reggie Miller and Lisa Leslie, and Steve Nash, who is producing a feature about the rise of ecstasy and rave culture in Reagan-era Texas.
Still, if the past is any indication, NBA MVPs don’t always translate into box-office stars.
Take 1996’s Space Jam, which at…